Full Belly Files | The Spain Trip That Didn’t Happen

A view of Pamplona, where Matt was supposed to be this week. | Credit: Adobestock

It’s Monday morning at my keyboard in Santa Barbara, but it’s supposed to be Monday night at pintxos bars in Pamplona.

As you may have read in last week’s newsletter, I was on my way to Spain this past weekend for a press trip to the Navarra wine region, where I had an last-minute assignment from Wine Enthusiast in place of a colleague who couldn’t make the trip. The whole experience was already tight to begin with: Nearly three days of travel for only four days of being there, as I needed to come home by Friday to make it to the Santa Barbara Vintners Festival this Saturday.

I was scheduled to make it to Pamplona on Sunday night, leaving Santa Barbara just after noon on Saturday. I’d had no luck picking seats on my Dallas to Madrid leg, despite multiple internet attempts and two long phone calls with Iberia Airlines, who couldn’t seem to figure it out either. Thankfully, once checked in at Santa Barbara Airport, I did have an aisle seat on that full Madrid flight, which was all I cared about given the 10-hour jaunt.

My flight to Dallas was fine. So was the three-plus hour layover, which I spent enjoying some Texan and Sicilian wine over pear and gorgonzola pizza at Cru in DFW, followed by two pre-flight martinis (and ample iced water), egged on by the Marine Corps welder from San Diego I sat next to at the Applebee’s bar next to my gate.

We boarded the Iberia plane close to 10 p.m. I sat next to a wine bar owner from Dana Point, and started watching The Phonecian Scheme despite the warning slide that it included airflight trauma.

At the very start of takeoff, there were two loud pops from outside the plane, but it just felt like a bumpy runway. The pilots immediately decelerated, and I assumed we had popped a tire. It all happened so quickly that it wasn’t really scary at all. (Nor did the federal shutdown’s air traffic control problems appear to have anything to do with our bad luck.)

A flight of decent Texan wines at Cru inside the DFW airport,

When the pilot told us that the right engine had failed, I presumed we’d all be in for a long night. It took about a half hour to find an open gate, and then we sat there as workers got on and off the plane. How could they fix an engine on the tarmac, I wondered? Well, they couldn’t.

Meanwhile, as we sat there for at least another hour, I had to pee my pants. I’d timed my martinis and water so that my bladder would last till we were at cruising altitude, but now we were grounded and told to stay in our seats. I was near the front of the economy section, and started to see people in first class — mostly men older than me — get up to use the bathroom.

When I reached the breaking point, I made the move toward that bathroom three rows away, but was promptly redirected back to my section’s bathroom — 20 rows back — in front of the 200 other folks strapped to their own seats. Once relieved, I returned to my seat for another half hour or so of waiting.

With hotel voucher in hand, I grabbed my checked bag — six wines that I was going to share with the Spanish winemakers plus clothes — and then waited for a shuttle that was already packed as an angry crowd amassed. Instead of waiting another 20 minutes, I called a $10 Lyft and brought the wine bar owner in the car with me.

I checked into the Hyatt Regency DFW, bought a dry Italian sandwich and some drinks from the deli, and watched Oceans 13 on TV till nearly 2 a.m. We were told that our new route would be emailed in four hours, so I set an alarm for 6 a.m. When I woke up, nothing was in my inbox.

Matt’s sad face with his bready Italian sandwich and a Union Bear No Coast IPA at the Hyatt Regency DFW.

I slept more till nearly 8 a.m., then decided to call Iberia. My new itinerary — this time through London — wouldn’t have started till 6 p.m. on Sunday night, with an 8 p.m. Monday arrival in Pamplona, a full 24-plus hours later than the original plan.

The math no longer made much sense to me: More than four days of traveling for less than three full days of experience, the finale of which already featured a late Thursday night flight to Madrid followed by a full Friday of flying to Charlotte and Phoenix before reaching home.

It was already past 8 a.m., but I saw a 10:09 a.m. American Airlines flight from DFW to SBA, the only direct of the day. I showered, threw on my same clothes from the day before, and hustled to the airport. For the first time in my life, I bought a ticket at the terminal. It was only $150 more for first class, so that was the easiest decision of the day. Presumably, this will be refunded anyway.

I had seat 1A, but just 15 minutes to get to the gate. The airport tram was only going in one direction that day, so I went from Terminal A to B, D, E, and then, finally, C. Why the alphabet doesn’t go in alphabetical order at DFW is still unclear to me. And I had to go to the bathroom again …

I made it, barely (in both cases). The first-class chicken and rice lunch was quite tasty, as were the glasses of red wine that I enjoyed while finishing Anora — I’d gotten about halfway through on my first flight after the also great Sacramento — and watching Spike Lee’s rather excellent Inside Man, which I must have missed when it came out.

The chicken & rice first class lunch on American Airlines.

Domaine de la Côte pinot noir, Epoch red blend, and Haliotide bubbles.

I was back home by 11:45 a.m., just in time to salvage my Sunday on a quintessentially sunny Santa Barbara afternoon. I took a dip in a nearby pool as my daughter smacked volleyballs with her friend, watched a rather dismal 49ers game with the closest of friends, and shared some of the Central Coast’s finest wines — Paix Sur Terre’s 2021 ugni blanc, Epoch’s 2019 Veracity blend, Haliotide’s 2021 blanc de blancs from Bassi Vineyard, and Domaine de la Côte’s 2021 Sous le Chêne pinot noir — with more friends I hadn’t seen in years who were visiting from Oakland.

I even snuck in a glass of Podere Brizio’s 2018 brunello while finishing The Phoenician Scheme, then properly passed out next to my son on the couch a few seconds into Bride of Chucky.

Would I like to be touring bodegas in Spain this week rather than sitting at my computer like I do all the time? Certainly.

But coming home to Santa Barbara is never a bad choice.

Vintners Fest on Saturday

My Spain trip was squeezed in part because I promised to attend this Saturday’s Santa Barbara Vintners Festival, which will be my first one since 2022. I wrote a few stories over the past few weeks to help promote the event and show off some new and/or refreshed wineries in Santa Barbara County.

The one I did this week was all about a new feature of the festival: Wine Camp, an interactive and educational experience involving blind tastings, short seminars and demos, and more. The Wine Militia’s Lamar Engel and Sonja Rei Strand told me all about what to expect at Wine Camp in this Q&A.

And if you missed by other stories leading up to the fest, I’ve gathered them all here for easy reading:

From Our Table

Trixy pyramid burger and chips | Photo: Nick Entrekin

Here are some stories you may have missed:

Ryan Cruz reports that the online fundraising campaign to save Del Pueblo Café in Goleta’s Magnolia Center was successful.
Alice Dehghanzadeh reveals that Mony’s Taqueria is now serving on the UCSB campus.
I checked out the Trixy pop-up at Revolver Pizza a couple weeks ago to hang out with winemaker Scott Sampler and try the Pyramid Burger that he collaborated on with Revolver chef-founder-co-owner Nick Bodden. That led to a long, engaging conversation with Nick, which led to this article about Nick, Revolver, Trixy, Scott, and that revolutionary burger.